Abandoned in the Jungle
by rookiebones
Summary: Lily and Tommy are attacked and abandoned.  Lily/Tommy friendship not romance.
1. Chapter 1

I thought of this story after an author's visit to my lit class the other week. He loves to imagine buildings and cities after they have been abandoned, how they decay and how nature takes over. I do not own Off the Map. Please R & R. Thanks ~ Rook.

Today is one of those days when even the most heat tolerant people stay inactive. The sun is glaring down in the inhabitants of a small South American village. The wind is absent, and there is no airflow. Everyone is sipping on cool drinks and staying indoors, that is, everyone except two stranded doctors.

Somewhere in the middle of the jungle, there is a half collapsed building. The tiles of the wall are disintegrating, specks of purple and yellow from the graffiti that was once there float to the floor. The specks mix in with the dried out landscape below. They also mix in with another substance, a red one in liquid form.

Nature is encroaching on this abandoned structure, reclaiming the land that was once its own. Many varieties of plants have begun to grow in the gaps of the walls and the exposed floors. One piece of vegetation, particularly parched in the heat of the day, sucks up the red juice. The source of the liquid is starting to come to, and to disturb the landscape about it.

Tommy Fuller opens his eyes. He has to blink multiple times to clear his blurred vision. He sees dirt and dust. There is a sharp pain on the side of his head and he puts his hand to the area. His heart beats faster as he feels the wetness. He moves his hand into his line of vision and sees the red on his palm. He groans.

Without getting up, he turns his head from side to side, trying to assess his surroundings. He has no idea where he is. It looks like the ruins of a building. On his second glance of the room, something catches in the corner of his eye. A few meters away there is a girl lying on the floor. She has long brown hair pulled back and is wearing a plaid shirt. Lily?

"Lily?" he calls out, but there is no reply. Lily remains still. Tommy tries to remember the events that occurred before he woke up in this place.

_Lily, Tommy and Otis had been asked to respond to a distress call in the outskirts of the village. They were told there had been a landslide and there were four injured in the event. Two were able to walk on their own, one had badly injured his leg and the other was trapped underneath some rubble. The others were too weak to help her. _

_ Lily, Tommy and Otis drove part of the way and had to trek the rest by foot. They were halfway there when Otis realized he had left some of the supplies in the truck. He went back to get them, but told Tommy and Lily to go on without him. When they got to the area that had been described to them, there were no victims. There was no evidence of a landslide._

_ "I knew we should have taken a left," said Lily, looking at her friend accusingly. "You have gotten us lost!"_

_ "We were told to take the path by the bent coconut tree," said Tommy. "I was only following what they said."_

_ "Do you know how many coconut trees we've passed on the way here?" asked Lily. "There are thousands of coconuts trees in this jungle!"_

_ They heard a rustling in the trees and looked about for the source._

_ "Hello?" called Lily. "We are doctors, we are here to help!"_

_ Lily and Tommy looked into the trees, but they were searching in the wrong direction. The people came up behind him and before Tommy could comprehend what was going on, Lily was down and so was he._

Tommy sits up and his head begins to spin again. He is tired and wants to lie down and sleep, but he knows that he needs to check on Lily. He breathes in and out through his mouth slowly. He coughs. His lungs are full of dry air. He slowly moves his legs underneath himself so that he is kneeling. He then stands, his arms stuck out for balance. He slowly makes his way over to his friend.

He kneels in front of Lily and moves her so that she is lying on her back. He brushes her hair away from her face.

"Lily?" he says, gently slapping her cheek, hoping she will come to.

"Lily?" He gently shakes her. "Lily!" He puts his fingers to her neck to check for a pulse.

Lily begins to fidget and eventually opens her eyes. It takes a few moments for her to adjust, but when she does she immediately sees Tommy's worried gaze. She looks around her.

"Tommy, where are we?" she asks.

"I don't know," he replies.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry I took so long! Thank you to all who reviewed! The Coca plant I refer to is not cocaine, but apparently cocaine is a derivative of it. As far as I could find out on the web, just chewing on the leaf would not have the side effects of cocaine. But please correct me if I'm wrong.

Tommy and Lily are exploring their surroundings. They venture out of the building cautiously, staying close together. They are in a thick forested area. Everywhere they look they see green. Lily has never seen so many shades of green before. Even the bark of trees is covered in encroaching plants and mosses. The trees are so tall that they can hardly see the blue of the sky.

Tommy groans and puts his hand to his head. His wound is significantly worse than Lily's but he has been trying to hide his pain from her.

"Don't touch it," Lily scolds, swatting his hand away from his head. "It might already be infected. We don't want it to get any worse.

"So what are we looking for exactly?" asks Tommy.

He follows her as she examines the leaves on a nearby tree.

"We are looking for a Coca tree," she says. "It will help with the pain."

"What exactly does a Coca tree look like?" asks Tommy.

Lily moves on to examine another tree. "Like this," she says gesturing to it. She pulls off a leaf and hands it to Tommy.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" he asks.

"Chew on it," she says. "Go on!"

She takes off another leaf and shoves it into her own mouth.

"Are you sure this is Coca plant and not something else?"

"Just eat the damn leaf, Tommy."

"Fine."

Tommy shoves the leaf into his mouth.

"We need to find a stream to wash our wounds before they get infected," says Tommy.

Lily nods. They continue to chew, looking around them. It would be so easy to get lost in the green landscape. At least the building would provide some sort of landmark that people would be more likely to come to. If they had to stay overnight in the jungle, it would be nice to have some sort of shelter.

"Do you think they're looking for us?" asks Lily.

"I don't know," says Tommy.

Dr. Cole grumbled the whole way to the truck and the whole trek back into the jungle. He stumbled on the roots of trees and plants on the path that was obviously not well travelled. He wanted to bash the medical supplies he was carrying into that stupid, crooked coconut tree, but that would make the extra trip he had made worthless. The heat was really starting to get to him. He wanted this to be over with, so he could get out of this damn jungle and have an ice cold beer at the cantina. Maybe Zee would join him.

"Fuller, Brenner, where the hell are you guys?" he called.

In the corner of his eye, he saw something stand out against the green foliage. He pushed his way over to the spot and kneeled down to have a look. It was blood. That wasn't unusual, considering they had been called to give medical attention. But where were the other doctors?

"Fuller?" he called. "Brenner?"

His eye caught another drop of blood, dark and mixed in with dirt. He followed the trail of blood, his stomach in knots. If anything happened to them, it was all on him. Plus, even if he would never admit it to anyone, he cared about their well being. He did not want any of the other doctors getting hurt.

A few minutes later, he saw something that tightened the knots in his stomach and raised his heart rate. The two bags that Fuller and Brenner had been carrying earlier lay on the ground. He ran over to them and unzipped the first. It was completely empty. He grabbed the other and unzipped it. It was completely empty as well. All of the medical supplies were gone and the doctors were nowhere to be seen.

"Shit!" he exclaimed.

There had been no accident, no landslide. It was all a ruse for someone to ambush them and steal the medical supplies. Cole radioed for help, but knew by the time they got here something terrible could have happened to Fuller and Brenner. Something terrible could have happened already! He would have to try to find them on his own, and hope his skimpy amount of medical supplies would be enough to help them until help came.


End file.
